Best Practices: Teaching Assistant-Instructor Agreements

Many graduate students serving as TAs received a commitment of employment through a letter of financial support when they were admitted to the graduate program. These letters generally establish the eligibility and conditions of employment for these students. In other cases, programs may wish to provide an offer letter to the student employee.

Human Resources has guidelines for hiring student employees, including a template for an employment offer letter and other key resources.

New student employees will need to complete onboarding tasks, outlined in the New Student Employee Checklist.

Programs must also inform students of the university’s Title IX policy and how it applies to their role. Student employees are required to complete Title IX training every two years.

The Graduate School maintains a webpage with conditions of employment that should be provided to students and appointing staff. These conditions require that students:

• Make satisfactory progress toward a graduate degree without existing conditional admission requirements;
• Remain registered for at least nine semester hours of coursework in long semesters. (Enrollment in three semester hours of coursework is required for students holding summer appointments);
• Maintain at least a 3.0 grade-point average; and
• Must not have more than two grades of X, I, NC, D or F in any combination.

Graduate programs may also stipulate additional eligibility requirements for students serving as TAs for specific courses, such as a degree in a particular field or pre-requisite coursework. Examples of these requirements are as follows:

• Good academic standing at the time of application and during the semester employed
• Maintain acceptable course-instructor survey ratings
• Proficiency in specific skills as identified by the instructor for the course assigned
• Proficiency in the English language as demonstrated by a passing score on the International Teaching Assistant Exam (international TAs only)
• Consent of faculty research/dissertation supervisor

Students seeking TA employment and programs recruiting TAs should join the graduate student campus jobs listserv, which links graduate student employees directly with university employers. Opt-in to UT Lists and search for graduatestudentcampusjobs@utlists.utexas.edu to subscribe.

The Handbook of Operating Procedures (HOP) provides the general job description for teaching assistants (HOP 9-2020).

TAs are defined as “graduate students who help faculty with the conduct and delivery of courses. Services provided by TAs include, but are not limited to, grading, monitoring, leading lab and/or discussion sessions, offering office hour assistance to students, and performing clerical tasks associated with course instruction. TAs are supervised by the course instructor of record and are subject to established departmental policies on student academic employment.”

TA-instructor agreements should clearly specify the expected duties of the TA for the assigned course, and these duties must be acknowledged and agreed to by both the instructor and the student. Checklists can be useful for this purpose, where the instructor selects the duties from a list of common duties. Examples of checklist duties include:

• Grade or otherwise evaluate student work
• Monitor and lead lab sections, student discussion sessions, recitation sessions, and similar activities
• Hold office hours for student assistance
• Perform clerical tasks associated with course instruction
• Proctor exams
• Provide feedback to the instructor about class performance

TAs are prohibited from regular classroom instruction and may not serve as the instructor of record. The TA-instructor agreement should be explicit about expectations for TA classroom instruction, including specifying circumstances when lecturing to the class is allowed (such as under the direct supervision of the instructor for mentoring/training purposes) and the frequency of such activities.

It is also good practice to specify in the agreements activities that are prohibited, such as performing personal tasks for the instructor. TAs and instructors should also agree upon methods for communicating during the semester and frequency of meetings, guidance and feedback. International students may have communication, guidance and feedback needs different from domestic students, so it is important that these expectations are discussed and agreed upon by the TA and instructor.

Students serving as TAs are encouraged to use the Center for Teaching and Learning’s resources for training and support.

TAs are typically appointed in positions with scheduled weekly hours ranging from 5 to 20 hours. TAs do not submit time sheets, so there is not a formal means of documenting the actual time spent per week. Therefore, it is important to establish the expectations for time management prior to the beginning of the semester, and it is important to have both the TA and the instructor agree to these expectations.

TAs may not be asked by the instructor to work more, on average, than their weekly hours for a course. It is good practice to establish a regular weekly schedule for the TA at the beginning of the semester, accounting for time needed to accomplish the duties included in the job description. A job description checklist, for example, can include the estimated weekly hours for each of the selected tasks. Instructors may choose to limit the number of prescribed weekly hours to fewer than the appointed hours to accommodate ancillary tasks that arise regularly or irregularly.

TAs do not accrue vacation time or sick leave. Therefore, the TA-instructor agreement should outline expectations regarding planned or unplanned absences. Similarly, the TA-instructor agreement should address expectations for working during exam periods and breaks (excluding official university holidays) in line with school, college, or departmental policies.

While the job description sets the duties to be performed by a TA, the TA-instructor agreement should also address performance standards for those duties. Examples of performance expectations include:

TAs should be given feedback on their performance, both by the students and the instructor of the course. Mid-semester feedback is advisable in order to identify performance concerns early and provide opportunities for improvement. When problems are identified, performance improvement plans should be developed and agreed upon by the TA and instructor. The frequency and form of performance assessments should be specified in the TA-instructor agreement.

Students generally evaluate TAs through the Course-Instructor Survey, but programs may choose to use additional performance assessment tools. There are several methods that can be used by the instructor to report TA assessments to the department or program, including submission of a letter, Qualtrics survey or Docusign survey. The results of the assessment should be communicated to the TA within a specified timeline outlined in the agreement. When appropriate and relevant, the assessment can be used as a means to recommend TAs for reward and advancement opportunities.

TAs should be informed of dispute resolution and grievance processes when problems arise. The Graduate School provides a summary of grievance procedures for graduate students. Some schools, colleges, departments, and programs have additional grievance procedures and guidance for dispute resolution. These policies and procedures should be made clear to the TA and the instructor through the TA-instructor agreements.

If the TA’s grievance is specifically related to employment, the procedure is outlined in HOP 9-2050.

Human Resources provides guidelines for student employment separations when performance problems cannot be resolved. Information on grounds for dismissal should be included in TA-instructor agreements so that both parties are aware of the policies and procedures.